Carolina Inn 2 < Restaurant Ware Collectors Network

Manufacturer: Shenango China
User: The Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill, NC
Date: Green pine bough: Shenango, 1951; reordered in 1968; blackish green pine bough: Shenango/Anchor Hocking, 1983

{"arrow":"false","pagination":"true","speed":"1000","autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"2000","loop":"true","slide_to_show_3d":"2","slide_show_ipad_3d":"2","slide_show_tablet_3d":"1","slide_show_mobile_3d":"1","slide_to_scroll_3d":"1","auto_stop":"false","centermode_3d":"true","space_between_3d":"0","depth":20,"modifier":20,"img_rotate":0,"img_stretch":0}

{"animation_fancy":"zoom-in-out","transition_fancy":"fade","fancy_box_loop":"true"}

Notes: The Carolina Inn, 211 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, opened in 1924. It was built by John Sprunt Hill, a UNC alumnus. He gave the Inn to the University to serve as "a cheerful inn for visitors, a town hall for the state and a home for returning sons and daughters of the alma mater." The Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is still owned by UNC and under new management in 2008 by Destination Hotels & Resorts Inc. of Denver, Colo.

The Inn comes in at #9 on a list of Top Haunted Hotels in the United States. Its resident ghost is believed to be that of prankster Dr. William Jacocks, a physician with the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, who retired to Chapel Hill and lived at the inn from 1948 until his death – not at the inn – in 1965.

Guests who stay in the elegant suite 252 that was once the home of Jacocks often find themselves locked out. At one time, the room's door had to be removed from its hinges because it wouldn't budge. Paranormal researchers have collected video and audio of ghostly happenings in this hotel, including piano notes, softly spoken words, and an orb-like object floating in the air.

As part of a remodeling of the Inn, new china patterns were ordered from Shenango in 1951 for the Hill Room and the Pine Room. This china was designed by Alma Holland Beers, a UNC botanical illustrator. She was paid for her work with a dinner for two at the Inn.

The pine design was replaced by the Inn in the 1980s with plain white plates because it was decided that food didn't look appetizing on it.

Green or blackish-green pine boughs set again a white circle, intended by Beers to represent a Carolina full moon. Base color is a dull gray-green.

More information can be found at the Inn's Web site.